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Childbirth is an amazing experience—overwhelming and beautiful at the same time. When you hold your child for the first time, you’ll be overcome with emotion, which will be different for every momma. But, I’ll admit, I was pretty exhausted after I had each of my children. Every mom has a different labor and delivery experience. But I don’t know of one mom out there that will tell you that they weren’t exhausted afterward.

If you want to go the breastfeeding route, the first few days can be grueling and confusing, but like childbirth, one of the most beautiful things you’ll ever experience.

I’m pregnant with my third child, and it’s bringing back all the memories of those first few days with my babies. This isn’t my first rodeo, so I’m sharing my secrets to help you get off to a great start and a thriving breastfeeding experience.

You may have read tips such as no pacifiers and no bottles, because we don’t want our babies to have nipple confusion, which is very important! But below I’ll dive deep on some practical tips brought to you by a fellow mom!

Here are my top 10 tips for surviving your first few days of breastfeeding:

1. Baby will find their way.

After you’ve delivered your baby, and you get to hold your little bundle for the first time, you’ll be completely in awe. I was on such a high from having my first child, I remember just staring at my daughters sweet face and crying tears of joy. I looked up and was talking to my husband and the next thing I knew that sweet baby that was minutes old had already moved her way down my chest and found my nipple. Say what?! Yes. Same thing with my son as well. So, when you hold your baby for the first time, you’ll want to be sure that you’re doing skin-to-skin, that way when they’re ready to feed, they can easily have the opportunity to find their way to the food source—that’s you momma! If they don’t do this on their own, just gently place them to your nipple, which leads to my next tip…

2.Try different positions.

So, you might know of the traditional “cradle” pose, but it didn’t work for me AT ALL with either of my children when they were newborns. What worked for me was the transitional position. That’s where you hold your baby with the opposite hand, and hold your breast with your hand closest to the breast you’re feeding with. Here’s a quick photo so you can easily understand the position–newborn modeled by my daughter’s favorite baby doll 😉

Put your thumb at 12:00 and your fingers cupped under your breast at 6:00 and make sure the baby has their mouth nice and wide to insert your nipple. You want to ensure your baby has their mouth all the way covering your areola, otherwise their latch won’t be good and you’ll hurt (BAD) because they won’t be sucking correctly. If they aren’t latched correctly, just unlatch baby by slipping your pointer finger in their mouth like a little hook to detach them–then try again. Another position to try is the football hold. Both work really well for newborns.  And, you’ll want to use lots of pillows to get you and baby comfortable—especially in the beginning when they are so little. I personally use the Boppy pillow, which has been so helpful! It isn’t complicated, it just sits around your waist easily to prop baby up!

 

3. Alternate sides and time from the start.

This is so important and can be a little confusing, but let me try to explain it as simply as possible. Your baby will want to eat frequently in the beginning—their little tummies are so small and they’re also building up your supply. Feed on demand and at least as often as every two hours from the time they START eating.

There are a ton of apps that are great for tracking when you feed your baby, as well as what side you started on. I highly recommend downloading one. But, here’s the thing with alternating sides that I want to be sure you get. Say you start baby on your right breast, let them feed until they unlatch, and then offer them your left breast. They may feed on the right for 5 minutes, and say on the left for 2 minutes. When it’s time to feed again, start on the side you finished on, in my example, that’s your left side. That will ensure baby is getting all the good stuff from both sides. If your baby started on the right side and fed for 10 minutes and when you offered them your left side, they weren’t interested, go ahead and start on the left side when baby has their next feeding.

Also, because baby might start crying and you’ll want to get them latched on ASAP, perhaps before you can grab your phone, I also always wore a hair tie on my wrist or a clip of some sort on my bra that I would always leave on the side I should start with next. When you’re exhausted it is really challenging to remember what side you last fed on…

4. Ask for and accept help.

Labor with my daughter was long and agonizing. I was so exhausted when she was born. I don’t know how I would have successfully breastfed if it wasn’t for my husband. When we got to our room, between feedings I slept and he rocked her, sang to her, and had his bonding time. And he would wake me up to feed her. This enabled my body to recover from the long labor. I am forever grateful that my husband was by my side so that baby could be in the room with me, but that I could also get the rest my body so desperately needed.

The labor with my son, was much quicker, so it wasn’t as dire of a need, but I was still grateful for the sleep and that my husband was there to help. If your husband can’t be there, or if you aren’t married—ask a your mom, sister, or a friend if they can be there to support you. If you don’t have anyone with you, remember, the nurses are there to support you too and they are amazing at supporting mommas.

5. Drink a lot of water.

So this makes total sense when you think about it, but if you haven’t thought about it, you might not realize how important drinking water is to breastfeeding. You need a lot of fluid to produce fluid. So make sure you’re staying plenty hydrated so that you have the fluid you need to produce breastmilk, and also to help you recover from childbirth.

They have these amazing cups at hospitals that are almost like pitchers (usually a mauve color)—have your nurses, and your husband/support person keep the water coming! Oh how I wish I would have taken that cup home with me when I left the hospital—I hope to remember this next time. The cup/pitcher is nice and BIG and helped me drink lots of water without having to refill as often.

6. Prevent sore nipples as best you can.

So I’ll just say it, because it sucks, but your nipples are going to be sore. Maybe not at the very beginning, but I highly recommend using nipple cream from the start to help avoid cracked and dry nipples in the future. I’ve tried many different kinds and by far the Medela nipple cream is hands down the best. The other kinds are sticky, not really what you want to be dealing with when you have sore nipples. The Medela brand is very smooth and goes on without friction. AMAZING! I would suggest you put it on after every feeding. And it doesn’t hurt to rub a little breastmilk on your nipples before you do so. That stuff has amazing healing powers!

7. Relax.

This is a biggie, when you’re getting ready to nurse, take a deep breath and try to relax as much as possible! Your baby needs to feel relaxed, and you’re going to help them feel relaxed if you are. If you’re tense, it’ll just make your baby tense. You will probably be an expert by now at relaxing from all those breathing exercises you did in preparation for labor. Tap into that training. Heck I still use them with my toddlers—Ha—but seriously!

8. Sleep.

Here’s a tip you’ve probably heard a million times that you might not understand now, but sleep when your baby sleeps. You will experience extreme fatigue from labor and then from feedings every two hours. It’s critical that you sleep and/or rest when the baby does—it’s the only way you’ll recover as our body does most healing when we sleep. And, if you’re anything like me and you love your beauty sleep, having a newborn is going to be a reality check for you in the sleep department. So just trust me and sleep and rest whenever you’re able.

9. Protect your nipples.

Okay so another product shout out! My nipples by day 3 were so sore that I felt like they were going to fall off! I’m not trying to scare you—just keeping it real. This was especially true with my first, as she had a little trouble with latching initially which made my nipples very sore. These Medela nipple shields are fantastic! They shield your nipples and create a barrier between your nipple and the shirt so they can get air to heal! And that means your bra or shirt isn’t rubbing your already sore nipples. These were life savers for me!

10. Don’t rush baby!

I saved this for last because it’s so important. Some advice you’ll hear is to only let baby eat for a certain amount of time and then switch them to your other breast. But this is so wrong. Every baby eats at a different speed, and every mom has a letdown that’s different—some letdown quickly, while some are slower.

Listen to your baby and let them eat until they’re done (they’ll unlatch), and then always offer them the other side. And in the same vein, don’t worry if it hasn’t been 2 hours since the last feeding. If they are showing cues of hunger like rooting, go ahead and offer baby the breast. It’s always best to offer it too often than not often enough, as it makes latching more difficult if your baby is screaming because they’re sooo hungry. Been there, done that! And it’s tough.

That’s it for now! My ten tips for surviving your first few days of breastfeeding. I sure hope this helps you out. If you have other questions I’d love to help—just comment below. If you’re an experienced momma and have some additional advice to share, I’d love to hear that too.

Talk soon! XO-

Kyra